This first cat, called Proailurus lemanensis (which translates to "Leman's Dawn Cat") was near the size of modern house cats and is speculated to have primarly hunted in trees, and spent little time on the forest floor.

A female Proailurus lemanensis, dinning contently on a early deer-like mammal while her kittens entertain themselves among the branches.

Proailurus evolved from a early member of the Feliformia which may have resembled something like the modern Madagascar fossa.

Proailurus was a small weasel-like cat with relatively short legs and a long body.

Pseudaelurus lorteti was about the size of a large lynx while P validus was the size of a large lynx or small puma.

Proailurus, a descendent of the miacids, evolved into Pseudaelurus, which split into two main groups, one of which became the modern cats (Neofelids), and one became the Machairodonts (true sabre-toothed cats, a sub-family of the Felidae).

Proailurus was a small cat, and had a body structure more like a miacid than a modern cat, with shorter legs and a long body.

About 20 mya, Proailurus gave rise to Pseudaelurus, which split into two major groups, one of which evolved into the Machairodontinae subfamily (the true sabre-tooth cats), and the other evolved into Schizailurus, which is the ancestor of all modern Felidae species.

Some believe that certain branches of Nimravidae evolved to give rise to Proailurus, but this is not the case.

Because our intent was to assign each specimen to a specific degree of specialization within hypercarnivores overall, some sense of relative position in space of each specimen was necessary.

These taxa have distinct specializations (hyena = bone) or known, degrees of development relative to each other (Proailurus [arrow right] Pseudaelurus [arrow right] Felis) (Radinsky 1982; Ginsburg 1983; Hunt 1998), and were used as identifiers to provide reference (positional) information for the remaining taxa.

This enabled us to determine the appropriate number of levels and to assign the remaining specimens to levels on the basis of clustering and spacing around these reference taxa.

Proailurus first appeared in the European forests, larger than a miacid it had even more specialised teeth and fully retractable claws enabling it to hunt on the forest floor whilst keeping it's claws razor sharp for climbing and killing.

It retained superb climbing skills, balance and the ability to always land on it's feet; proailurus literally means first cat.

Proailurus spawned a range of cats both large and small that spread across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas via a land bridge, constantly evolving new species to deal with each new terrain and prey encountered.

Thirty million years ago it would have been difficult to believe that short, elongated, weasel-like and above all, French, proailurus would have spent the next few eons preparing to scratch wooden posts and chase bell-clad mice.

What you may not have known, however, is that the ancient proailurus didn't give cats much in the way of stunning intellect or a resilient constitution.

Sure, they may seem like they're scheming a cunning revolution as they toy pensively with fuzzy trinkets - and they just may be, though we here at IAATCI aren't giving up any secrets - but, what cats really need to live fuzzy, happy lives is something intrinsic we all have plenty to give: love.

itsaboutcats.rescuegroups.org /info/display?PageID=1884 (840 words)

Evolution(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04)

The true cats, Noefelids, are not seen until the early Miocene, where Proailurus is found.

From Proailurus various cat genera are known, including the sabre-toothed cat.

There was also another family of carnivores that were similar in appearance to the cat, called the Nimravids.

The first cats (stem felids) are assigned to the genera Proailurus and Pseudaelurus.

Crown felids can be broken up into two subfamilies: 1) the Machairodontinae, the saber-toothed cats (Figure 1, right) and 2) the Felinae or conical-toothed cats, which includes all of the extant members of the family, their immediate ancestors, and close sister taxa.